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books tagged “fable”
books tagged “fable”
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Abel's Islandby William SteigISBN 0374300100 (0-374-30010-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Abel's Island'Book summary:One summer day, newlywed mice Abel and Amanda are out for a picnic in the woods when they are caught in a sudden storm--a "full-fledged, screaming hurricane" to be precise. As they take refuge in a cave, a wind scoops up Amanda's scarf, and Abel foolishly lunges from safety to retrieve it. So begins William Steig's Newbery Honor Book Abel's Island, the ensuing adventures of this rather foppish mouse as he comes head to head with nature. Amazingly, Abel is swept up in a stream, then a river, then eventually marooned on an island (about 12,000 tails long). He is sure that his rescue is imminent: "It's certainly gotten around that Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint, of the Mossville Flints, is missing," the society mouse speculates. But he is not so lucky. What will this intelligent, imaginative rodent do to get off the island and back to his beloved Amanda? He busies himself with finding ways to get to shore (including bridges, boats, catapults, stepping stones, and gliders); figuring out what he should eat (everything from mulberries to roasted seeds); and investigating where he should take shelter (in a rotten log). As the weeks and months go by, he misses his books, his paintings, his comfortable stuffed chair, his stylish clothes (now damp, torn, and lumpy), but above all his precious wife Amanda, whom he thinks about constantly. As the mouse faces his new life Robinson Crusoe-style, Abel discovers what it's like to be in tune with the natural world as well as his true nature, and what it's like to return, fortified, to his real home and to the arms of the one he loves. Along the way, readers can't help but rediscover the joys of being alive. (Ages 8 and older, but an engaging read-aloud for younger children, too) --Karin Snelson [via]
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Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouseby Leo LionniISBN 0394809149 (0-394-80914-9)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse'Book summary:Everyone loves Willy the wind-up mouse, while Alexander the real mouse is chased away with brooms and mousetraps. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be loved and cuddled, thinks Alexander, and he wishes he could be a wind-up mouse too. In this gentle fable about a real mouse and a mechanical mouse, Leo Lionni explores the magic of friendship.
Originally published in 1969, the Caldecott Honor-winning Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse is sure to enchant a whole new generation of readers. [via]More editions of Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse:
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The Amber Spyglassby Philip PullmanISBN 0375823352 (0-375-82335-2)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Amber Spyglass'Book summary:From the very start of its very first scene, The Amber Spyglass will set hearts fluttering and minds racing. All we'll say here is that we immediately discover who captured Lyra at the end of The Subtle Knife, though we've yet to discern whether this individual's intent is good, evil, or somewhere in between. We also learn that Will still possesses the blade that allows him to cut between worlds, and has been joined by two winged companions who are determined to escort him to Lord Asriel's mountain redoubt. The boy, however, has only one goal in mind--to rescue his friend and return to her the alethiometer, an instrument that has revealed so much to her and to readers of The Golden Compass and its follow-up. Within a short time, too, we get to experience the "tingle of the starlight" on Serafina Pekkala's skin as she seeks out a famished Iorek Byrnison and enlists him in Lord Asriel's crusade:
A complex web of thoughts was weaving itself in the bear king's mind, with more strands in it than hunger and satisfaction. There was the memory of the little girl Lyra, whom he had named Silvertongue, and whom he had last seen crossing the fragile snow bridge across a crevasse in his own island of Svalbard. Then there was the agitation among the witches, the rumors of pacts and alliances and war; and then there was the surpassingly strange fact of this new world itself, and the witch's insistence that there were many more such worlds, and that the fate of them all hung somehow on the fate of the child.
Meanwhile, two factions of the Church are vying to reach Lyra first. One is even prepared to give a priest "preemptive absolution" should he succeed in committing mortal sin. For these tyrants, killing this girl is no less than "a sacred task."In the final installment of his trilogy, Philip Pullman has set himself the highest hurdles. He must match its predecessors in terms of sheer action and originality and resolve the enigmas he already created. The good news is that there is no critical bad news--not that The Amber Spyglass doesn't contain standoffs and close calls galore. (Who would have it otherwise?) But Pullman brings his audacious revision of Paradise Lost to a conclusion that is both serene and devastating. In prose that is transparent yet lyrical and 3-D, the author weaves in and out of his principals' thoughts. He also offers up several additional worlds. In one, Dr. Mary Malone is welcomed into an apparently simple society. The environment of the mulefa (again, we'll reveal nothing more) makes them rich in consciousness while their lives possess a slow and stately rhythm. These strange creatures can, however, be very fast on their feet (or on other things entirely) when necessary. Alas, they are on the verge of dying as Dust streams out of their idyllic landscape. Will the Oxford dark-matter researcher see her way to saving them, or does this require our young heroes? And while Mary is puzzling out a cure, Will and Lyra undertake a pilgrimage to a realm devoid of all light and hope, after having been forced into the cruelest of sacrifices--or betrayals.
Throughout his galvanizing epic, Pullman sustains scenes of fierce beauty and tenderness. He also allows us a moment or two of comic respite. At one point, for instance, Lyra's mother bullies a series of ecclesiastical underlings: "The man bowed helplessly and led her away. The guard behind her blew out his cheeks with relief." Needless to say, Mrs. Coulter is as intoxicating and fluid as ever. And can it be that we will come to admire her as she plays out her desperate endgame? In this respect, as in many others, The Amber Spyglass is truly a book of revelations, moving from darkness visible to radiant truth. --Kerry Fried [via]
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American Godsby Neil GaimanISBN 0380789035 (0-380-78903-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'American Gods'Book summary:American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.
Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton [via]
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Arabian Nightsby Husain Haddawy, Muhsin MahdiISBN 0393313670 (0-393-31367-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Arabian Nights'Book summary:Readers for more than three centuries have delighted in The Arabian Nights--a world wherein magic is woven into the fabric of everyday life; a touching, exhilarating mixture of flamboyance, pathos, beauty, and humor. This first serious English translation fully exploits the Middle-Eastern storyteller's art and the variety of levels at which the stories move. [via]
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Arabian Nights and Daysby Naguib Mahfouz, Denys Johnson-DaviesISBN 0385469012 (0-385-46901-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Arabian Nights and Days'Book summary:A renowned Nobel Prize-winning novelist refashions the classic tales of Scheherazade in his own imaginative, spellbinding style. Here are genies and flying carpets, Aladdin and Sinbad, Ali Baba, and many other familiar stories, made new by the magical pen of the acknowledged dean of Arabic letters. [via]
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The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nightsby Richard Francis Burton, A. S. ByattISBN 0375756752 (0-375-75675-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights'Book summary:Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever.
This volume reproduces the 1932 Modern Library edition, for which Bennett A. Cerf chose the most famous and representative stories from Sir Richard F. Burton's multivolume translation, and includes Burton's extensive and acclaimed explanatory notes. These tales, including Alaeddin; or, the Wonderful Lamp, Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, have entered into the popular imagination, demonstrating that Shahrazad's spell remains unbroken. [via]More editions of The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights:
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Autumn Quailby Naguib Mahfouz, John Rodenbeck, Roger AllenISBN 0385264542 (0-385-26454-2)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Autumn Quail'Book summary:A tale of moral responsibility, alienation and political downfall featuring a corrupt young bureaucrat, Isa ad-Dabbagh, who is one of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 Revolution in Egypt. The conflict is between his emotional instincts and his acceptance of the Revolution. [via]
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A Color of His Ownby Leo LionniISBN 0375810919 (0-375-81091-9)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Color of His Own'Book summary:Every animal has a color of its own. "Parrots are green, elephants are gray, pigs are pink." But chameleons change color wherever they go. "On lemons they are yellow. In the heather they are purple." One chameleon is not pleased with his changeable appearance. He thinks, "If I remain on a leaf, I shall be green forever, and so I too will have a color of my own." Of course, what he doesn't take into account is the changes wrought by autumn, and soon the green chameleon is yellow, then red, and then tumbled to the ground for the long black winter night. It isn't until he befriends another older, wiser chameleon that our hero begins to find inner peace, even as his outer surface is transformed again and again.
Leo Lionni, children's book creator extraordinaire, author of such beloved picture books as Frederick, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, Swimmy, and Inch by Inch, all Caldecott Honor winners, introduces color concepts in an exquisite and touching story. This small board book edition of the classic tale of self-acceptance and friendship will be a favorite for toddlers and parents alike. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter [via]
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The Complete Grimm's Fairy Talesby Wilhelm Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Josef ScharlISBN 0394709306 (0-394-70930-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales'Book summary:210 traditional tales with accompanying explanatory and historical material. [via]
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Complete Worksby Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, Alexander WoollcottISBN 0394716612 (0-394-71661-2)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Works'Book summary:This is a carefully edited text of the writer's chief work and selections from his lesser writings and letters without which it would be impossible to form a picture of his life's work and genius. [via]
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Complete Works of Lewis Carrollby John TennielISBN 0370005074 (0-370-00507-4)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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The Complete Works of Lewis Carrollby Lewis Carroll, John TennielISBN 0394604857 (0-394-60485-7)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll'Book summary:This is a carefully edited text of the writer's chief work and selections from his lesser writings and letters without which it would be impossible to form a picture of his life's work and genius. [via]
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The Confessions Of Max Tivoliby Andrew Sean GreerISBN 0374128715 (0-374-12871-5)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Confessions Of Max Tivoli'Book summary:Out of the womb in 1871, Max Tivoli looked to all the world like a tiny 70-year-old man. But inside the aged body was an infant. Victim of a rare disease, Max grows physically younger as his mind matures. In Andrew Sean Greer's finely crafted novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Max narrates his life story from the vantage point of his late fifties, though his body is that of a 12-year-old boy. He has known since a young age that he is destined to die at 70, and he wears a golden "1941" as a constant reminder of the year he will finally perish in an infant form. His mother, a Carolina belle concerned over her son's troubling appearance, curses Max with "The Rule": "Be what they think you are." Max fails to keep this Rule only a handful of times in his life, but it is the burden of living by it that wounds him and slowly alienates him from the people he loves.
Over Max's narration of the preceding decades of his life, he offers outsider's snapshots of San Francisco and all of America across the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout, Greer uses the literary device of reverse aging to interrogate the evolution of social conventions, the finitude of a human life, and the decay of memory. Max wants love. But his curse destines him to deception. He loses his wife, Alice, changes his name, and remains hidden from his own son to keep his true identity secret. Only his lifelong friend, Hughie, stands by Max and can see the person inside the anachronistic body. Like the best science fiction and myth, the novel uses its central conceit to reveal human prejudice and explode all assumptions of normalcy to profound effect.
Love is a destructive force in The Confessions of Max Tivoli. But Greer recognizes that in the failure of love is also hope. He artfully captures Max's fragile world with a delicacy that never crosses into sentimentality but also avoids the monumental scale of tragedy. As Max says near the end of the novel, "It is a brave and stupid thing, a beautiful thing to waste ones life for love." A journey with Max, while brave and beautiful, is hardly a waste. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Coralineby Neil Gaiman, Dave McKeanISBN 0380807343 (0-380-80734-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Coraline'Book summary:Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.
What's on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of... people who pronounce her name correctly (not "Caroline"), delicious meals (not like her father's overblown "recipes"), an unusually pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a man made out of live rats. The creepiest part, however, is her mirrored parents, her "other mother" and her "other father"--people who look just like her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button eyes, paper-white skin... and a keen desire to keep her on their side of the door. To make creepy creepier, Coraline has been illustrated masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny, haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 and older) --Karin Snelson [via]
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The Cup of the Worldby John DickinsonISBN 0385750250 (0-385-75025-0)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cup of the World'Book summary:FILLED WITH IMMENSE characters, this thrilling medieval fantasy filled with moral complexity and vision announces the arrival of a special new writing talent.
Phaedra, the beautiful daughter of a baron, has been visited in dreams by an elusive knight for almost as long as she can remember. And when his presence becomes a reality, she is forced to choose him and a new life over her home and her father. But this sets off a chain of events that she could not have foreseena battle between good and evil, which is in turn violent and psychologically compelling. This stunning novel grapples with the huge themes of life, and turns the readers expectations upside down again and again, with one vertiginious plunge after another. [via]More editions of The Cup of the World:
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The Fifth Childby Doris LessingISBN 0394571053 (0-394-57105-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fifth Child'Book summary:Doris Lessing's contemporary gothic horror storycentered on the birth of a baby who seems less than humanprobes society's unwillingness to recognize its own brutality.Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outsideuntil the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him. Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world. [via]
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Flatlandby Edwin Abbott AbbottISBN 0389015318 (0-389-01531-8)
Hardcover, Dover Pubns
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The Fortress of Solitudeby Jonathan LethemISBN 0375724885 (0-375-72488-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fortress of Solitude'Book summary:This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification."
This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the most simple human decisionswhat music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch moneyare laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is the story of 1990s America, when no one cared anymore.
This is the story of punk, that easy white rebellion, and crack, that monstrous plague. This is the story of the loneliness of the avant-garde artist and the exuberance of the graffiti artist.
This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: They would screw up their lives.
This is the story of joyous afternoons of stickball and dreaded years of schoolyard extortion. This is the story of belonging to a society that doesn't accept you. This is the story of prison and of college, of Brooklyn and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and redemption.
This is the story Jonathan Lethem was born to tell. This is THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. [via] -
French Folktalesby Henri Pourrat, C. G. Bjurstrom, Royall TylerISBN 039454451X (0-394-54451-X)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'French Folktales'Book summary:Selected from Henri Pourrat's classic Le tresor des contes, one of the finest folktale collections in the world, these one-hundred-odd legends, fairy tales, devotional pieces, jokes, and animal stories from the rural provinces of France comprise a magical volume. Fairies, changelings, giants, demons, bumpkins, knaves, bewitched and bewitching princesses, bandits, and others enact stories of perilous tests of love, contests with the devil, the beneficence of saints, and more.
Royall Tyler's translation deftly captures the vigor and resonance of the originals, and his cogent introduction illuminates for the reader the earthy, chilling, mischievous, and mystical realm these tales evoke.
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]More editions of French Folktales:
The Fur Personby May SartonISBN 0393301311 (0-393-30131-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fur Person'Book summary:A delightful, whimsical taleone of the most popular books for cat lovers ever written, now newly illustrated.
May Sarton's fictionalized account of her cat Tom Jones's life and adventures prior to making the author's acquaintance begins with a fiercely independent, nameless street cat who follows the ten commandments of the Gentleman Catincluding "A Gentleman Cat allows no constraint of his person, not even loving constraint." But after several years of roaming, Tom has grown tired of his vagabond lifestyle, and he concludes that there might be some appeal after all in giving up the freedom of street life for a loving home. It will take just the right human companion, however, to make his transformation from Cat About Town to genuine Fur Person possible. Sarton's book is one of the most beloved stories ever written about the joys and tribulations inherent in sharing one's life with a cat. This edition, beautifully illustrated with 9 new color watercolors by Jared Williams, will continue to be an enduring favorite. 9 new color watercolors [via]-
Golden Compassby Philip PullmanISBN 037582345X (0-375-82345-X)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Golden Compass'Book summary:Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:
As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had daemons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.
Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey daemon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of Golden Compass:
- Golden Compass: ISBN 0375838309 (0-375-83830-9)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc - Golden Compass: ISBN 0375938303 (0-375-93830-3)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books - Golden Compass: ISBN 0345413350 (0-345-41335-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books - Golden Compass: ISBN 037582345X (0-375-82345-X)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
- Golden Compass: ISBN 0375838309 (0-375-83830-9)
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Grendelby John Champlin GardnerISBN 0345288653 (0-345-28865-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grendel'Book summary:Grendel is a beautiful and heartbreaking modern retelling of the Beowulf epic from the point of view of the monster, Grendel, the villain of the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon epic. This book benefits from both of Gardner's careers: in addition to his work as a novelist, Gardner was a noted professor of medieval literature and a scholar of ancient languages. [via]
Grendelby John GardnerISBN 0394471431 (0-394-47143-1)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Grimm's Tales for Young and Oldby Ralph ManheimISBN 0385189508 (0-385-18950-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grimm's Tales for Young and Old'Book summary:Ralph Manheim, the highly acclaimed and prize-winning translator, has rediscovered in the original German editions of the Grimms' works the unadorned, direct rhythm of the oral form in which they were first recorded. [via]
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Grimm's Tales for Young and Old: The Complete Storiesby Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Ralph ManheimISBN 0385110057 (0-385-11005-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grimm's Tales for Young and Old: The Complete Stories'Book summary:A new and modern translation of the entire collection of folk and fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. [via]
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Grimms' Fairy TalesISBN 033360184X (0-333-60184-X)
Hardcover, Motorbooks Intl
Find This BookBook summary:The stories collected by the Brothers Grimm are probably the most popular folk tales in the Western world. This selection includes "Rumpelstiltskin", "The Elves and the Shoemaker", "The Goose Girl", "The Frog-Prince", "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and many others. [via]
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Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan SwiftISBN 0393099415 (0-393-09941-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gulliver's Travels'Book summary:Ted Danson reads the official tie-in to Hallmark Entertainments NBC-TV television event!
Imagine the greatest adventure of all time....
Rediscover the immortal story of Lemuel Gulliver and his fantastic voyage. Join him on his journey to the land of the six-inch-high Lilliputians...and into the royal court of the sixty-foot-tall Brobdingnagians. Ascend with him to the flying island of Laputa, whose inhabitants are endowed with uncommon intelligence, but no common sense at all. And follow him into the world of the Houyhnhnms, a race of civilized horses -- lords and masters of the brutish human Yahoos. The tale of a lifetime, "Gulliver's Travels" is filled with action, romance, danger, satirical wit, timeless wisdom, and the high drama only a classic of this caliber can convey. Set sail! [via]More editions of Gulliver's Travels:
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The Handmaid's Taleby Margaret AtwoodISBN 038549081X (0-385-49081-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Handmaid's Tale'Book summary:In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.... Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force. [via]
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Heart of the Countryby Greg MatthewsISBN 0393022897 (0-393-02289-7)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Holesby Louis SacharISBN 0374332657 (0-374-33265-7)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Holes'Book summary:"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony.
It's a strange story, but strangely compelling and lovely too. Louis Sachar uses poker-faced understatement to create a bizarre but believable landscape--a place where Major Major Major Major of Catch-22 would feel right at home. But while there is humor and absurdity here, there is also a deep understanding of friendship and a searing compassion for society's underdogs. As Stanley unknowingly begins to fulfill his destiny--the dual plots coming together to reveal that fate has big plans in store--we can't help but cheer for the good guys, and all the Yelnats everywhere. (Ages 10 and older) --Brangien Davis [via]
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The House of Breathby William GoyenISBN 039449699X (0-394-49699-X)
Hardcover, Random House
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How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giantsby Howard A. NormanISBN 0316611816 (0-316-61181-6)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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Joanna and Ulyssesby May SartonISBN 0393304140 (0-393-30414-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Jungle Booksby Rudyard KiplingISBN 0385159757 (0-385-15975-7)
Softcover, Bookthrift Co
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The King of Elfland's Daughterby Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett DunsanyISBN 034543191X (0-345-43191-X)
Softcover, Del Rey
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The King of Elfland's Daughter'Book summary:All fantasy and horror fans owe it to themselves to read Lord Dunsany (1878-1957). The sword & sorcery genre was born in his early stories, and high fantasy was indelibly transformed by his novels. His profound influence on 20th-century fantastic fiction is visible in authors as dissimilar as Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Lord Dunsany's best-known novel is The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924), wherein the men of Erl desire to be "ruled by a magic lord," and the lord's heir, Alveric, ventures into Elfland to win the king's daughter, Lirazel. Their story does not progress as a reader weaned on the diluted milk of formulaic fantasy would expect; and the novel's unique journeys and events are matched by Dunsany's rich and lyrical prose and by his contagious intoxication with the magic and marvels of both Elfland and our own world. --Cynthia Ward [via]
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The Mabinogionby Gwyn Jones, Thomas JonesISBN 0375411755 (0-375-41175-5)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mabinogion'Book summary:(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)
Preface by John Updike
The 11 stories of The Mabinogion, first assembled on paper in the fourteenth century, reach far back into the earlier oral traditions of Welsh poetry.
Closely linked to the Arthurian legends--King Arthur himself is a character--they summon up a world of mystery and magic that is still evoked by the Welsh landscape they so vividly describe. Mingling fantasy with tales of chivalry, these stories not only prefigure the later medieval romances, but stand on their own as magnificent evocations of a golden age of Celtic civilization.
This translation of The Mabinogion has, since its first appearance in 1949, been recognized as a classic in its own right. It was last revised by Gwyn Jones and his wife, Mair, in 1993. [via]More editions of The Mabinogion:
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The Magusby John FowlesISBN 0316296198 (0-316-29619-8)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Magus'Book summary:John Fowless The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, but even almost half a century after its first publication, it continues to create tension and concern, remaining the page-turner that it was when it was first released. [via]
The Marriages between Zones Three, Four, and Five (as Narrated by the Chroniclers of Zone Three)by Doris May LessingISBN 0394749782 (0-394-74978-2)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Marriages between Zones Three, Four, and Five (as Narrated by the Chroniclers of Zone Three)'Book summary:The second in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives". It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history. [via]
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Narcissus and Goldmundby Hermann Hesse, Ursule MounaroISBN 0374506841 (0-374-50684-1)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Narcissus and Goldmund'Book summary:Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teachers fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.[via]More editions of Narcissus and Goldmund:
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The Neverending Storyby Michael Ende, Ralph ManheimISBN 0385176228 (0-385-17622-8)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Neverending Story'Book summary:In this classic fantasy novel from author Michael Ende, small and insignificant Bastian Balthazar Bux is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own. Then, through the pages of an ancient, mysterious book, he discovers the enchanted world of Fantastica, and only Bastian himself can save the fairy people who live there. Shy, awkward Bastian is amazed to discover that he has become a character in the mysterious book he is reading and that he has an important mission to fulfill.[via]More editions of The Neverending Story:
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Neverwhereby Neil GaimanISBN 0380789019 (0-380-78901-9)
Softcover, Avon Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Neverwhere'Book summary:Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero [via]
Not Wanted on the Voyageby Timothy FindleyISBN 0385294158 (0-385-29415-8)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Ocean Seaby Alessandro Baricco, Alastair McEwenISBN 0375703950 (0-375-70395-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ocean Sea'Book summary:In Alessandro Baricco's celebrated debut, it was silk that exerted a fatal attraction. This time it's the ocean, whose watery charms cause an entire cast of characters to convene at the isolated Almayer Inn. The guests include a seductress, an eccentric professor, and a painter with a pronounced penchant for metaphysics. They're soon joined by the beautiful young daughter of a local aristocrat, who's been stricken with a mysterious illness. In a sense, however, all these characters are suffering from maladies--psychological, existential, erotic--which makes the Almayer Inn a kind of Magic Mountain with beachfront footage.
The author is a renowned opera critic in his native Italy. Perhaps this accounts for his love of linguistic arias, which can overpower the plot of Ocean Sea. When Baricco gets rolling, of course, his intricately worked prose is a delight. Even the inn itself, situated alone on a promontory, gets the red carpet treatment: "So alone it was there, it seemed a thing forgotten. It was almost as if a procession of inns, of every kind and vintage, had passed by there one day, skirting the coast, when, out of tiredness, one had detached itself from the rest, and, as its travelling companions filed past, it decided to stop on that slight rise, yielding to its own weakness, bowing its head and waiting for the end." At his best, Baricco recalls Italo Calvino--there's the same pleasure in elegant riddles and rococo storytelling. Here and there the narrative of Ocean Sea vanishes down a dead end, and the author's weakness for typographical trickery doesn't help. Still, Baricco's novel remains a refreshing dunk in what Christina Stead called "the ocean of story"--and a brainy exploration of the littoral truth. --Bob Brandeis [via]
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Of Mice and Menby John SteinbeckISBN 0394604725 (0-394-60472-5)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Of Mice and Men'Book summary:A parable of commitment, loneliness, hope and loss, OF MICE AND MEN is a powerful and moving portrayal of two men striving to understand their own unique place in the world. Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other - and a dream. A dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie - struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy - becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes, friendship and a shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossessed, OF MICE AND MEN remains Steinbeck's most popular work. [via]
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Paladin Of Soulsby Lois McMaster BujoldISBN 0380818612 (0-380-81861-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Paladin Of Souls'Book summary:Follow Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the most honored authors in the field of fantasy and science fiction, to a land threatened by treacherous war and beset by demons -- as a royal dowager, released from the curse of madness and manipulated by an untrustworthy god, is plunged into a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm.
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The Phantom Tollboothby Norton JusterISBN 0394815009 (0-394-81500-9)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Phantom Tollbooth'Book summary:"It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, bored young protagonist who can't see the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.
Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory "Appreciation" written by Maurice Sendak for the 35th anniversary edition, he states, "The Phantom Tollbooth leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must." Indeed.
As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end. (Ages 8 and up) [via]
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The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists: A Novelby Gideon DefoeISBN 0375423214 (0-375-42321-4)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists: A Novel'Book summary:Not since Moby-Dick...No, not since Treasure Island...Actually, not since Jonah and the Whale has there been a sea saga to rival The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, featuring the greatest sea-faring hero of all time, the immortal Pirate Captain, who, although he lives for months at a time at sea, somehow manages to keep his beard silky and in good condition.
Worried that his pirates are growing bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it's high time to spearhead an adventure.
While searching for some major pirate booty, he mistakenly attacks the young Charles Darwin's Beagle and then leads his ragtag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog-filled streets of Victorian London. There they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, radioactive elephants, and the Holy Ghost himself. And that's not even the half of it. [via]More editions of The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists: A Novel:
The Plato Papersby Peter AckroydISBN 0385497695 (0-385-49769-5)
Softcover, Anchor Books
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The Plato Papers : A Prophecyby Peter AckroydISBN 0385497687 (0-385-49768-7)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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The Poet and the Donkeyby May SartonISBN 0393301591 (0-393-30159-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Poet and the Donkey'Book summary:"A small, sophisticated, elegantly sentimental journey through a New Hampshire village summer. Our companions are an aging poet, who is sad because he can no longer writehe has lost the joy he used to have in simply being aliveand a young, mischievous female donkey, who is sad because she can't run and playshe has a touch of arthritis. . . . There is a moral, of course, but any moral looks dull next to the simple happiness of the old poet and his long-eared muse."The New Yorker
[via] 
The Pull of the Oceanby Jean-claude Mourlevat, Y. MaudetISBN 0385733488 (0-385-73348-8)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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Pumpkin Soupby Helen CooperISBN 0374460310 (0-374-46031-0)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Robber Brideby Margaret AtwoodISBN 0385491034 (0-385-49103-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Robber Bride'Book summary:Exploring the paradox of female villainy, this tale of three fascinating women is another peerless display of literary virtuosity by the supremely gifted author of Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale. [via]
Running from Safetyby Richard BachISBN 0385315287 (0-385-31528-7)
Softcover, Delta
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Sarah Canaryby Karen Joy FowlerISBN 0345416449 (0-345-41644-9)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Silkby Alessandro Baricco, Guido WaldmanISBN 0375703829 (0-375-70382-9)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The Solitaire Mysteryby Jostein GaarderISBN 0374529434 (0-374-52943-4)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Solitaire Mystery'Book summary:Jostein Gaarder had an unlikely international success with Sophie's World, a novelized exploration of western philosophy through the eyes of a young girl. This is an earlier work, translated from the Norwegian by Sarah Jane Hails. This fable-like story dabbles in philosophy too, though more lightly. It tells of a Norwegian boy traveling across Europe with his calm and reflective father in search of his long lost mother. The boy finds a tiny manuscript that reveals the secret of a magic deck of cards that can tell the future. [via]
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Stardustby Neil GaimanISBN 0380804557 (0-380-80455-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Stardust'Book summary:De Féerie, le pays magique, les habitants du petit village de Wall savent peu de choses. Il faut dire qu'un grand mur les en séparent. Un mur dans lequel est ouvert une brèche, une brèche bien gardée, par laquelle ils n'ont droit de passer qu'une fois l'an, le jour de la grande foire de Wall. C'est ce jour-là, justement, que le jeune Tristram Thorn, décidé à conquérir le cSur de sa belle, part pour le pays de fée afin de lui ramener une étoile filante. Mais dans un pays magique, rien n'est comme ailleurs. Les distances sont immenses, on y croise nains et licornes, des chasseurs d'éclairs naviguent sur des bateaux volants et l'on est jamais à l'abri d'un mauvais sort qui pourra vous transformer en arbre, en chèvre ou en rat. Un monde plein de dangers et de merveilles que Tristram est loin d'imaginer, comme il est loin d'imaginer que son étoile filante est une belle et pure jeune fille, dont la présence ici-bas va éveiller la concupiscence des sept seigneurs de Sromhold comme de quelques vilaines sorcières...
Neil Gaiman est aussi à l'aise dans la BD (Sandman), que dans le roman (Neverwhere). Un talent inépuisable qu'il confirme une fois de plus ici en revisitant avec bonheur l'univers des contes de fées. À la fois drôle, merveilleux et volontairement naïf, Stardust est une réussite. --Georges Louhans [via]
Struwwelpeter:Merry Stories and Funny Pictures: Merry Stories and Funny Picturesby Heinrich HoffmannISBN 0330232827 (0-330-23282-7)
Hardcover, Pan Books
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Swimmyby Leo LionniISBN 0394817133 (0-394-81713-3)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Swimmy'Book summary:Deep in the sea there lives a happy school of little fish. Their watery world is full of wonders, but there is also danger, and the little fish are afraid to come out of hiding . . . until Swimmy comes along. Swimmy shows his friends howwith ingenuity and team workthey can overcome any danger. With its graceful text and stunning artwork, this Caldecott Honor Book deserves a place on every childs shelf.
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]More editions of Swimmy:
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Tales from Ovidby Ted HughesISBN 0374525870 (0-374-52587-0)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tales from Ovid'Book summary:England's poet laureate Ted Hughes first turned his hand to Ovid's Metamorphoses when he--along with other prominent English-language poets such as Seamus Heaney, Amy Clampitt, and Charles Simic--contributed poems to the anthology After Ovid. In the three years following After Ovid's publication, Hughes continued working with the Metamorphoses, eventually completing the 24 translations collected here. Culling from 250 original tales, Hughes has chosen some of the most violent and disturbing narratives Ovid wrote, including the stories of Echo and Narcissus, Bacchus and Pentheus, and Semele's rape by Jove. Classical purists may be offended at the occasional liberties Hughes takes with Ovid's words, but no one will quarrel with the force and originality of Hughes's verse, or with its narrative skill. This translation is an unusual triumph--a work informed by the passion and wit of Ovid, yet suffused with Hughes's own distinctive poetic sensibility. [via]
Tonguecatby Peter Verhelst, Sherry MarxISBN 0374278431 (0-374-27843-1)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Unbroken Webby Richard AdamsISBN 0345303687 (0-345-30368-7)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripby George Saunders, Lane SmithISBN 0375503838 (0-375-50383-8)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip'Book summary:The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is that rarity, a fable that appeals equally to literate adults and id-crazed kids. Its author, George Saunders, is a Thomas Pynchon-approved, three-time O. Henry Award-winning surrealist writer; its artist, Lane Smith, is the Caldecott-honored illustrator of The Stinky Cheese Man and film designer of James and the Giant Peach. Nothing could evoke Saunders's simple yet extravagant story better than Smith's strange, painterly depictions of the seaside town of Frip, a place of ornery eccentrics and oddball animals. Smith combines some of the virtues of George Grosz, Dr. Seuss, and the Japanese prints called Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world").
Gappers are baseball-sized, burr-shaped orange creatures with a compulsion to creep up out of the sea and fasten themselves to goats, whom they love. "When a gapper gets near a goat it gives off a continual high-pitched happy shriek of pleasure that makes it impossible for the goat to sleep, and the goats get skinny and stop giving milk," writes Saunders. Since Frip survives by selling goat milk, the children must brush gappers off the herd eight times daily and dump them into the ocean. You simply must see Smith's picture of Capable, the book's plucky heroine, emptying her gapper-sack from a precarious cliff picturesquely menaced by subtly colored waves. You'll be torn between lingering over the gorgeous artwork and flipping the page to see how Capable will ever cope with the gapper invasion of Frip, her obdurately past-obsessed widower papa, and her dumb, mean neighbors (two snooty, boy-obsessed girls and a family of singers who are harder on the ears than a keening gapper attached to the goat of its dreams). This is a slim tale, but unquestionably one quite in keeping with Saunders's prizewinning books. The title story of Pastoralia, for instance, is also a fable involving class struggle and people who get snooty about the difficulties of working with goats.
The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a grownups' book, a kids' book, an art book, and a cause for countless happy shrieks of pleasure. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Volponeby Ben Jonson, Philip BrockbankISBN 039390010X (0-393-90010-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Way Down Deepby Ruth WhiteISBN 0374382514 (0-374-38251-4)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Way Down Deep'Book summary:[via]Although Ruby seemed to just appear out of thin air on the steps of the courthouse on the first day of summer in 1944, no one in Way Down Deep, West Virginia, ever worried too much about where the toddler came from. They figured that if Rubys people were dumb enough to lose something as valuable as a child, then that was their problem. So even though Ruby cant help but wonder where she came from, she has led a joyful and carefree life in Way Down Deep, loved and watched over by Miss Arbutus proprietor of The Roost, the local boardinghouse the residents of The Roost, and the rest of the town. But when Ruby is twelve, a new family moves to Way Down Deep, and they inadvertently provide enough clues about Rubys past that she is able to find her own people. Ruby travels from Way Down Deep to the top of Yonder Mountain to learn who she really is only to find that she is bound to Way Down Deep by something even stronger than family ties: love.
With a touch of fairy-tale magic and a lot of heart, Ruth White explores just what it is that makes a place truly home.Way Down Deep is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.More editions of Way Down Deep:
With a Tangled Skeinby Piers AnthonyISBN 0345318854 (0-345-31885-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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